Writer has secured $200 million at a $1. 9 billion valuation to grow its enterprise-centric generative AI platform. The Series C funding round was jointly led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth, with contributions from Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Workday Ventures. According to Writer CEO May Habib, this new funding, which increases the total raised to $326 million, will be dedicated to product development and "solidifying the company’s leadership in the enterprise generative AI landscape. " Habib explained, “At Writer, we’re not just creating AI models for task execution but developing advanced AI systems for mission-critical enterprise work. With this new funding, we’re focusing on providing the next generation of autonomous AI solutions that are secure, reliable, and adaptable to complex, real-world enterprise scenarios. ” Founded in 2020 by Habib and Waseem AlShikh, who also previously co-founded Qordoba, Writer has evolved into a comprehensive generative AI platform with products tailored for various enterprise applications. In 2023, Writer introduced its family of models, Palmyra, specializing in text generation. Later that year, the company launched features enabling business data integration with its models and customer self-hosting of Writer-developed models. Recently in October, Writer launched a model, Palmyra X 004, trained almost completely on synthetic data with a development cost of just $700, 000, significantly less than the estimated $4. 6 million for a similar OpenAI model. Currently, Writer focuses on “AI agents” that handle workflows across systems and teams, alongside customizable AI guardrails and a suite of no-code development tools.

Despite fierce competition in the generative AI sector, Writer has thrived, boasting hundreds of clients like Mars, Ally Bank, Qualcomm, Salesforce, Uber, Accenture, L’Oreal, and Intuit. Patrick Stokes, EVP of product and industries marketing at Salesforce, praised Writer, stating, “Transforming models into dependable business tools requires substantial engineering. Writer offers a refined, AI-powered solution that’s effective, simple to deploy, and has significantly accelerated our workflows at Salesforce. We’re delighted to collaborate with them as both an investor and a customer. ” Accenture, Balderton, Insight Partners, and Vanguard also joined Writer’s Series C. The latest funding underscores venture capital’s robust interest in generative AI, with Accel reporting that such startups will receive 40% of all VC investment in cloud technologies this year. In the first half of 2024 alone, investments in generative AI startups reached $3. 9 billion, excluding OpenAI’s $6. 6 billion round, according to Pitchbook.